My kingdom come or God's kingdom come?

In general, there are two ways that we can approach life. Two very simple ways, “My Kingdom come, my will be done,” or “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” I don’t know about you, but in my 37 years, I have tried to approach life a lot as “My kingdom come, my will be done.” I have learned that any time I do that, life gets pretty frustrating. Life can be pretty miserable when we constantly want to have life on our terms. The sad thing is, when we try to have life on our terms, the vision to the kingdom, my kingdom, is so small to what God wants His Kingdom to be in our world.

We have two ways to approach suffering as well. The reality is, we all experience suffering in this life. I want you to think about that. Are you experiencing any suffering right now? It could be anything: emotional, physical, spiritual, relationships, family, or friendships. Are you experiencing any suffering? There are two ways to approach it, “My will be done, my kingdom come,” or “Thy will be done come, Thy Kingdom come.” Think about that for a moment. Then also think about what we are celebrating today.

What I love about today’s feast day is that the title is not only “Christ the King,” but it is actually Christ the King of the universe. He is the King of the universe. That means that He is not only the King of my universe. He is not only the King of Mentor. He is not only the King of Ohio. He is not only the King of the United States of America. He is the King of the entire world. Actually, He is the King of the Universe!

I began to ponder in my mind, “What does that mean, the universe?” Have you ever had that experience, when you go out at night, and you look at the stars and you just get that feeling? For me, it is a feeling of wonder and awe. Then I also get that feeling of terror. The universe is so huge. We are so little and Christ is the King of it all, the entire universe.

I was looking up the word “universe” in the dictionary to see what it means. It means a whole body of things: a phenomena observed, a systematic hole, how to arrive by and persist to the direct intervention of divine power. The universe is a whole creation held together by God’s divine power. The entire celestial cosmos, the Milky Way, the galaxy, and aggregate of stars are comparable to the Milky Way and galaxy. God has it all. He is King of it all. He is in control of it all. And then it says, the universe can also be a set that contains all the elements relevant to a particular discussion or problems. Not only is God in charge of the entire universe, He is King of this and yes, you. Whatever your circumstances are, whatever your individual set of problems are, whatever your discussion or your area of ground. Your universe. He is King of it. He is King of your universe and He is King of mine.

The original etymology and you look at what the word universe means comes from the Middle English or Latin term universal which means, the whole or entire verse and verse is God is turned towards it. God has His face turned towards us. He has His face turned towards the universe.

I just want you to think a little about that. First of all, not only does God have the entire universe under control, He pretty much has this universe handled. By the way, He has our country handled, too. He also has you handled. Your problems are not really that big when it comes to God. My problems, when it comes to God, are really not that big. God can handle them. He has the whole universe to handle. He can handle your problems. He can handle my problems. Just think about that. Whatever your problems are, whatever your struggles are, whatever your issues are, the King can handle it. He has you under control.

Father Jeremy and I went to see Art Garfunkel the other night. By the way, I met Art Garfunkel. Four priests went to the concert and at the end of the concert, Father Jeremy just had it in his mind that these four priests were going to meet Art Garfunkel. What do you mean we are going to meet him? After the concert, we snuck around behind the Rocksino. We found the place where the cars were and we got to meet Art Garfunkel. As he was signing the autographs, Father Jeremy said, “Man you got me through high school and college. I wouldn’t have survived it without you.” Art Garfunkel just smiled. There is a whole reality that God has a way of getting us through things. One of the things Art Garfunkel said is that he is so grateful to God. We were wearing our collars, and he said he was so grateful to God for giving him his voice. That his voice really gave him a golden ticket to life.

The reality is that God has given us all different talents. God does get us through life. The difficulties come when we try to do life on our terms. “My kingdom come, my will be done,” makes life very, very difficult and very, very frustrating. When we can say “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,” all of a sudden life becomes easier.

What do I mean by this? If you listen to The Gospel today, it is so clear. There are two thieves. Jesus is dying and there is a thief on His right and a thief on His left. They both look at Jesus and one thief says to Him, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.” What he was saying is, “I want it done my way. Get me down from this cross and get yourself down from this cross.” Sometimes we approach God like that. We have suffering and we have difficulties, and what is our prayer? “Lord make it stop. Get rid of this problem for me.” We want it our way, my way. “My will be done, my kingdom come.”

The other thief said something so beautiful. He said, “Have you no fear of God.” There is a complete acceptance and surrender of his situation. He looks at Jesus and he says to Him, “Jesus remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” Jesus looked at him very very powerfully and said, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Not when I die, not later on. He says, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” The same is true of all of us.

Whatever you are suffering right now, whatever your struggles, whatever your difficulties are, that is your cross. You did not get to choose it, but you are nailed to it. You have two ways of approaching it. “Lord get me down from this cross, save me.” “My will be done, my kingdom come.” Or accept it, “Your will be done. Your Kingdom come.”

I just want to end with one paragraph and this comes from the Novena to Surrender. A Novena, for the younger generation, is a 9 day prayer that you do. I made the mistake of going to Father Jeremy for Confession and he gave me a 9 day penance. I had to do this Novena which was on surrender. It is actually really beautiful, and it deals with today. Ultimately God’s will being done. This is what it means to accept. This is what it means to surrender. This is what it means to allow ourselves to just simply allow God’s Kingdom.

This is Jesus saying it to you:

Surrender to Me does not mean fret,
to be upset, or to lose hope,
nor does it mean offering to Me a worried prayer
asking Me to follow you
and change your worry into prayer.
That is against this surrender,
deeply against it, to worry,
to be nervous
and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.
It is like a confusion that a child feels
when they ask their mother to see to their needs,
and then try to take care of those needs for themselves
so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way.
Surrender means to placidly close your eyes of the soul,
to turn away from your thoughts of tribulation
and to put yourself into My care,

That is all we have to do to allow His Kingdom to come. Simply close the eyes of our soul, surrender ourselves, and let them care for us.

Those are the two ways to approach life. It is your choice. It is my choice. “My kingdom come, my will be done.” Frustration, difficulties, discouragement. Or “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

At this very moment, today, you can be with Him in paradise.

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If you are interested in doing the Novena just pick any day to start and continue for nine days in a row.

NOVENA OF SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF GOD

(Author: Father Don Dolindo Ruotolo ✝ 1882-1970)

Day 1
Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying?
Leave the care of your affairs to me
and everything will be peaceful.
I say to you in truth that every act of true,
blind, complete surrender to me
produces the effect that you desire
and resolves all difficult situations.
Repeat 10 times…
O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 2

Surrender to me does not mean to fret,
to be upset, or to lose hope,
nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer
asking me to follow you
and change your worry into prayer.
It is against this surrender,
deeply against it, to worry,
to be nervous
and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.
It is like the confusion that children feel
when they ask their mother to see to their needs,
and then try to take care of those needs for themselves
so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way.
Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul,
to turn away from thoughts of tribulation
and to put yourself in my care,

Repeat 10 times…